Staffers stand at the emergency department entrance watching a National Guard flyover in May 2020 at MaineGeneral’s Alfond Center for Health hospital in Augusta. MaineGeneral says it is prepared to take on new obstetrics patients now that Northern Light Health is closing down its birthing services in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

As Northern Light Inland Hospital and Women’s Health in Waterville prepare to suspend birthing services, officials at other providers in the region say they are happy to take in patients displaced by the change.

Representatives from Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan and MaineGeneral Health in Augusta say they are working closely with the Waterville providers to help patients through the transition.

“We have eight providers at RFGH who provide obstetrical services,” Dr. Gust Stringos, medical director at Redington-Fairview, said. “A list of these providers is being provided to Inland to share with their patients. The patients can contact the provider of their choice for further obstetrical care.”

MaineGeneral will take on as many displaced patients as possible, said Joy McKenna, director of marketing and communications. Officials are working with Northern Light to understand how many patients will need to transition after March 1 and what level of care they seek, she said.

Some patients may already be seeing a primary care physician and will maintain that relationship, and then choose to come to MaineGeneral’s Augusta hospital, Alfond Center for Health, to give birth, McKenna said.

Ongoing recruiting challenges for labor and delivery providers forced Northern Light to make the decision to suspend birthing services in Waterville, said Suzanne R. Spruce, Northern Light Health’s senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer.

Spruce said Jan. 23 that the decision came after much discussion and consideration about how to best care for expecting parents in the community. She said the move gives Northern Light time to design a new program that supports consistent access to high-quality prenatal care and labor and delivery services. She said a decision about when a new program will be in place and birthing services would return to Waterville depends on recruitment, and officials plan to reevaluate the situation in six months.

The decision leaves Waterville with no birthing services within city limits. Redington-Fairview is 18 miles from Waterville; Alfond Center for Health is 16 miles away; and Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor is 62 miles from Waterville.

Inland Hospital is located at 200 Kennedy Memorial Drive; Women’s Health is at 180 Kennedy Memorial Drive.

Northern Light Health announced Jan. 23 it is suspending birthing services at Northern Light Inland Hospital, above, and Northern Light Women’s Health, both in Waterville. Hospitals in Augusta and Skowhegan said they are prepared to take on an increase in patients as a result. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Last year, 229 babies were born at Inland, according to Kathy Jason, lead communication specialist in marketing and communications for Northern Light’s locations in Waterville and Pittsfield.

In 2023, 279 babies were born at Inland and in 2022, 254 were born there, she said.

“Over the past decade, the number of births at Northern Light Inland Hospital has been declining,” Jason said.

The loss of birthing services in Waterville is just the latest to hit Maine. At least eight hospitals have closed their birthing centers in the last decade or so, mostly in rural areas, driven partly by declining birth rates.

Last year, about 125 babies were born at Redington-Fairview, Stringos said.

“We have plenty of capacity for more,” he said. “We are able to provide caesarean section delivery when needed and offer experienced pediatric care as well.”

Last year, 1,063 babies were born at MaineGeneral’s Alfond Center for Health, which has a state-of-the art birthing center and where all deliveries take place, according to McKenna, who said all patient rooms are private. She said it is a neonatal intensive care unit level 2 facility, so more high-risk births can occur there.

Last June, Augusta & Waterville Women’s Care, which had offices at the Alfond Center and on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville, joined MaineGeneral’s OB/GYN practice, she said. Midwifery services are offered in Waterville and Augusta.

A renovated space at Thayer Center for Health in Waterville is open five days a week to see OB/GYN patients. MaineGeneral has capacity to see patients in Waterville, but to maximize medical staff capacity, new patients also will be seen in Augusta, McKenna said.

Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, seen July 1, 2024, has plenty of capacity to add more OB/GYN patients in the wake of Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville suspending birthing service, according to Dr. Gust Stringos , medical director at Redington-Fairview. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

MaineGeneral is adding family medicine physicians with an obstetrics focus to its OB/GYN office to help increase access to those services, she said. Residency practices at Maine Dartmouth Family Practice at Thayer, Family Medicine Institute in Augusta and Four Seasons Family Practice in Fairfield are able to take low-risk patients as well, she said, adding that MaineGeneral is actively recruiting for OB/GYN medical staff.

McKenna said MaineGeneral’s OB practice has a patient satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.

MaineGeneral’s maternity and pediatrics unit offers a range of support services and parent education, including breastfeeding support and certified lactation consultants, as well as and childbirth parenting classes, she said.

“As the leading health care provider in the Greater Kennebec Valley, we recognize the important role we play in the community,” she said. “We are committed to providing patients with high-quality, patient-centered care and will do our best to help with this change.”